"Report, every undead creature in the region marked is cleared away. Your orders." The deputy captain looked at the fleet-group commander before him with some tension in him.
"Have they all been looked over? Not one left behind?" Su Lan raised her head, and there was nothing in her eyes but cold.
Which gave those about her the feeling of a chill going through them.
"They… they have…" The deputy captain swallowed.
Su Lan glanced at the red region upon the interstellar holo-table.
And said quietly: "Then let this operation end, and we go on to the next place."
"That… General, our fleet group has gone a month now without rest and refitting. And of the regions the undead hold, there are three left and no more. Might we… might we arrange for our fleet group to rest a while?" the deputy captain put in.
Su Lan knit her brows slightly.
The deputy captain said quickly: "In truth it need not be for long. Only let the crews get in touch with their families; that would serve. The officers are well enough, for they may use their own authority to reach their families and kin. But the crews of the middle and lower ranks have no such right. So…"
Su Lan's face checked, and she said: "See to it. We return and rest one week. Let those crews who have had no leave rest well; and if any wish it, they may be allowed to leave the ship for a time and visit their people."
"Yes!" the deputy captain said, glad of it.
The deputy captain would have gone; but she looked at Su Lan, and could not keep from saying: "General, you… you must let yourself rest a little too. These six months, you… your state has been nothing like what it was before. And if it goes on so, your body will not bear it."
"That is hardly within the compass of your work," Su Lan said coldly, looking at her.
The deputy captain could do nothing, and could only lower her head and go.
Su Lan sat in the captain's chair and shut her eyes.
And a long while passed.
The deputy captain came to tell her: "General, we have come to the Owl Dragon's No. 3 military base."
Su Lan opened her eyes.
"The matter of resting and refitting is in your charge. And in this time, do not come and trouble me." Su Lan took her somewhat weary body out of the bridge.
And at this, as she boarded the lift within the ship, a message sprang up upon her handheld terminal.
She glanced at it,
and knit her brows slightly.
But at the last she changed the way she was going, and did not go back to her quarters.
But went instead toward the hangar.
"General, this is the shuttle you asked for. Shall a pilot be arranged…" And before the crewman could finish.
Su Lan had sprung into the shuttle already, and flew her out of the hangar.
And went toward an interstellar city in the distance.
This is a military star system, and a great number of warships may be seen berthed here at rest and refitting.
There are star ports, and habitable planets fit for recovering upon besides.
Here a starship may be well kept and repaired, and the crews may be greatly eased here as well.
And not far off there could even be seen Diamond Eden-class starships lying at berth.
For these Eden ships here let the crews come aboard and rest, and make certain besides that the crews refitting here may have the freshest of food.
And of all of it, the most splendid is that interstellar city.
The shuttle came to her berth within a hangar in a moment.
"General." The crewman, seeing who it was that came down from the shuttle, was startled in an instant.
And stood up straight at once and saluted.
"Make me ready a hover-cycle," Su Lan said coldly.
"Yes."
And soon a cycle of hovering shape stood before Su Lan.
Su Lan got astride it, bent low, and worked this cycle out at a gallop with a practiced hand.
For it holds high technology within it, and this cycle can gallop through the air, and its speed is very great!
And in a moment,
this cycle had carried Su Lan to the top of a hill of fine scenery, where upon the hilltop stood a high-class wine estate.
The reckoning here is dear enough, so that near enough all who come here are officers of the fleets.
"Welcome, and come in. The Kuocang Hill Estate." A mechanical maid came out and saluted Su Lan.
"Put my cycle away for me." Su Lan walked in at the estate's great door without turning her head.
The mechanical maid did not hinder her; for in the moment it saw Su Lan, it had scanned her particulars and knew what standing Su Lan held.
And naturally understood that Su Lan could well afford her reckoning here.
Su Lan turned several corners and came outside an open-air private room.
The door stood half shut, and a voice could be heard within.
"Big Sister Chu Xuan, drink no more."
"It is good. Drink a little with me."
"Don't… don't come near me… glug, glug, glug…"
Su Lan pushed the door open and went in.
And saw Chu Xuan holding Xue Xiaoxiao against the floor-to-ceiling window with its fine view, and with a bottle of something in her hand, forcing it straight into Xue Xiaoxiao's mouth.
Xue Xiaoxiao was struggling without cease; but the quality of that body of hers was worth nothing at all before Chu Xuan, who comes of a family of soldiers.
So she could only let the wine be poured down her throat, some of it running out at the corner of her mouth.
And about the whole room there were no few bottles scattered.
Su Lan came up with a cold face and pulled Chu Xuan off her with one hand.
The bottle fell to the floor, and what wine was left in it spilled out.
"Cough, cough, cough…" Xue Xiaoxiao drew her breath in gasps, and her cheeks were somewhat flushed.
And seeing Su Lan appear, she looked as one looks at a savior, and darted at once behind Su Lan, and watched Chu Xuan on the other side warily.
"Big Sister Su Lan, you have come at last. Had you not come… I… I felt I was like to be drowned." Xue Xiaoxiao mumbled it out.
And Chu Xuan on the other side swayed where she stood; and seeing Su Lan, a smile came onto her face, and she took two bottles from the cabinet beside her and came swaying toward Su Lan.
"Su Lan, so you have come as well. That is well. Xiaoxiao has no head for drink. Let us drink." So saying, Chu Xuan twisted the bottle open outright, and made to hand it to Su Lan.
Su Lan took the bottle.
But the next instant the bottle in Su Lan's hand came down upon Chu Xuan's head.
And the wine ran over the whole of Chu Xuan.
Chu Xuan was checked where she stood.
And Xue Xiaoxiao was checked as well.
"Chu Xuan, you have disappointed me past bearing. Are you still that eldest daughter of the Chu family? Are you still the supreme commander of the Owl Dragon's Second Legion fleet group, and a marshal of the Owl Dragon!" Su Lan glared at Chu Xuan.
Chu Xuan was checked.
And then laughed at her own expense. "The Chu family's eldest daughter? An Owl Dragon commander? An Owl Dragon marshal? Are these things of any weight? Was it for these that I did it? No! I can do without these. I can do without every one of them. I want only that he be alive! That that wretch be alive and well!" Chu Xuan shouted it, and shouting, wept.
And Xue Xiaoxiao behind Su Lan turned her face aside, as though she would not have another see what was in it.
"Who says that he is dead? Did you see it with your own eyes?" Su Lan came forward, and took Chu Xuan by the hair, and put her up against the floor-to-ceiling window.
Much as Chu Xuan and Xue Xiaoxiao had stood a moment ago, only that the chief part had changed hands.
"Then why… why does he not come back!" There was weeping in Chu Xuan's voice by now as she spoke.
"Whatever may be. So long as he is not come back, one day or another. We ought to keep this place for him. And not do as you do, and let yourself fall so low. And if you go on like this. Then I counsel you to give up your post outright as supreme commander of the Owl Dragon's Second Legion fleet group, and go back to your Chu family, and be the eldest daughter there. And then, never mind your drinking. You may drink yourself dead and no one will trouble about it! But I believe that if he knew of this thing. He would assuredly be very disappointed in you!" Su Lan looked at Chu Xuan sternly.
Chu Xuan's face went blank; and then she sat down where she was upon the floor, and wept aloud.
And Xue Xiaoxiao looked at Chu Xuan and could not bear it.
For though half a year and more had gone by.
There are some who to this day cannot accept this thing.
Who may throw themselves into work upon work without a break, that they may have no leisure to think of anything else.
And who may seem ordinary enough upon the face of them; but when they are left alone, no one knows how it is with them within.
And there are those like Chu Xuan, who cannot accept it all of a sudden, and who find some corner and let it out.
"Big Sister Su Lan. Big Sister Chu Xuan is not like this in the ordinary way; she has only just finished a round of clearing away the undead creatures. And brought her fleet here to rest and refit. And so she came here… to ease herself a little. Only I never supposed that Big Sister Chu Xuan, once she set to drinking, should be so far out of hand. So having word that you had come as well, Big Sister Su Lan, I thought to have you come and reason with Big Sister Chu Xuan." Xue Xiaoxiao set out how the matter had gone.
Su Lan glanced at Chu Xuan, sitting upon the floor with her wits gone out of her.
She said nothing, but went to the side and took up a bottle. "If you would drink, I can keep you company here today. But today only."
And having said it, Su Lan drank a whole bottle outright.
Chu Xuan, seeing it, said nothing, but went quietly to Su Lan's side, took up a bottle, and drank along with Su Lan.
Seeing this, Xue Xiaoxiao smiled helplessly.
And now it was well indeed.
She had two of them to keep an eye upon.
And as Su Lan drank more and more.
The air of the room grew loud again.
"That wretch. In those days it was Senior, Senior at every turn, calling me into that fleet of his. And I came. And now it is well; he himself is lost and no one knows where, and he has thrown this mess here to us. I only work for him; I did not sell myself to him!"
"You have the right of it; there is a fellow with no conscience in him. In those days, for the sake of looking after him, my family gave it out abroad that he and I were betrothed. And now that he has risen in the world, he does not so much as speak of the matter. And has… and has gone and got children with Charlotte and Lilith besides. And I… I… I do not even know what that is like… I thought at first, well, let it be. If only I might watch him from afar, that would serve. And now, even so small a thing as that he will not grant me!"
"Stinking man!"
"Great wretch!"
Xue Xiaoxiao drew herself into a corner at the side, and dared not say a word.
For she feared that if she drew these two women's notice now, she would be hauled off and have drink poured into her again.
Eating she can do, and tasting a little wine now and then will pass.
But what these two were at now could hardly be called drinking; they drank as men drink water.
Not to be meddled with. Not to be meddled with.
But listening to what they said.
There was something hollow in Xue Xiaoxiao's heart as well.
For that man is indeed a great liar.
He had said it: that when the campaign against the Order hive-race was done, he would see to it that she had a super interstellar battleship of her own.
And it is half a year and more, and she has not seen so much as a gun of it.
Great liar!
Xue Xiaoxiao took a fierce bite out of the chicken leg in her hand.
And just as Xue Xiaoxiao was lying low so, and waiting for these two women to drink themselves senseless that she might clear up the wreck after them.
All of a sudden, Xue Xiaoxiao's handheld terminal sounded,
and with a voice to it besides.
Which drew the notice of the two drinking women at a stroke, and their drink-sodden eyes turned toward Xue Xiaoxiao huddled in her corner.
Curse it!
Why must they reach me at such a moment as this.
It was as though ten thousand horses were galloping through Xue Xiaoxiao's heart.
But upon seeing the name of the one who reached her.
The look on Xue Xiaoxiao's face changed.
She sprang to her feet.
And just as she would have taken the link, it may be she thought of the state of the place about her, which no one could well bear to look at.
And she chose a link by voice alone.
"It is I, Xue Xiaoxiao. What are your orders?"
Charlotte's voice came from the other end.
"Word newly come in. Rebellions have broken out in a number of places within the Empire. And someone has made public… the matter of the Emperor's being lost and his whereabouts unknown… And there is now a very great confusion within the Empire's borders over this. To this moment, near five hundred thousand rebel fleet ships have appeared in all. And have fallen upon a number of planets. And at the same time, by the word the Embroidered-Uniform Guard reports, certain of the great families are showing themselves unsettled. Every one of the Empire's fleet groups, and the ace fleet groups, is now to go at once to a war footing. And afterward I shall confer with the supreme secretary officer Lilith upon the plan to follow. What you are to do is to have every fleet at a standing-by within half an hour. And half an hour from now, carry out the tasks sent down to you. Is that understood?"
Charlotte's voice was very level, but there was a faint wish to kill within it.
"Understood."
"And further, neither Su Lan nor Chu Xuan can be reached. By the word I have, are they together with you?" said Charlotte.
"Yes. Yes, they are. They are with me. I shall have them carry out the operation at once," Xue Xiaoxiao said quickly.
"Mm." Charlotte pressed her no further.
For she likely knew well enough what state matters were in at that end.
And with that the link ended.
Xue Xiaoxiao raised her head; it seemed she must get those two women sober in a hurry.
All of a sudden,
Xue Xiaoxiao saw Su Lan and Chu Xuan standing bolt upright where they were, and driving some phial or other into their own arms.
And the flush upon their faces faded quickly.
It could be seen that the drink in the two of them was going off.
This is the working of the sobering serum, and its effect is there before your eyes.
"I never supposed that anyone would truly dare make trouble at such a time as this!" Chu Xuan's voice came, cold and with the wish to kill in it.
Su Lan threw away the sobering serum, its dose run in, and walked toward the door. "This pack of fellows must be made to pay for it."
And thereafter Chu Xuan walked out after her.
Good grief; were these two truly drunk at all, or shamming it?
Xue Xiaoxiao smiled helplessly.
By the look of it these two women, whatever the hour and whatever the state of them, had never once forgotten what they were answerable for.
Xue Xiaoxiao set her own uniform straight.
And then walked out of the room as well.
And the look upon her face grew stern by degrees.
For to do such a thing at such a time as this,
that pack of fellows truly did not know how the word 'death' is written!